Wednesday, 21 March 2012

What follows is an excerpt from a British Review Article on M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire's General and particular History of Anomalies of
Organization in Man and Animals whichappeared in The British And Foreign
Medical Review (Vol 8, No. 15) July, 1839.

A general and particular History of Anomalies of
Organization in Man and Animals, comprising Researches into the Characters,
Classification, &c. of Monstrosities. By M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
M.dD, &c. &c—Paris,
1832-36. 3 Vols. 8vo, with an Atlas.

Although some years have elapsed since the greater portion
of the work before us was published, yet, as no sufficient account of it has
hitherto appeared in our language, we think it important that our readers
should no longer be deprived of the highly interesting and valuable information
it contains, and shall therefore now present them with an analysis of it. In
executing our task we shall confine ourselves almost exclusively to the
exposition of the author's views; introducing our own opinions but sparingly,
even when they are at variance with those maintained in the original treatise.
On some future occasion we may take up the whole subject fundamentally; our
present object being rather to supply facts than to criticise doctrines.

The object of M. St. Hilaire's work is to give a complete
history of the subject of monstrosities: under which name all the various
congenital irregularities of form and structure, occasionally met with in man
and animals, are generally included. The author has collected together a great
number of facts, relating to the different forms and degrees of anomaly, which
he has systematically arranged in classes, orders, &c.; and he has
afterwards endeavoured to establish the laws and general relations to which all
the individual facts may be referred. He has shown how these laws and these
relations are themselves only derived from the common laws of organization, and
how, among the numerous theories of the formation and growth of animals which
have been proposed in modern times, those which are not applicable to anomalous
cases are also inapplicable to normal facts in general, and ought to be
rejected; and many principles, on the contrary, but slightly established at
present by the study of natural facts, find in the phenomena of monstrosities
complete elucidation. M. Isidore St. Hilaire has also pointed out that this
subject embraces all the conditions of organization in the various classes of
organized beings, and that there is scarcely any general fact, auy anatomical
or physiological law, on which it does not throw light and either confirm or
disprove. Thus the necessary consequence of an exact and profound knowledge of
anomalies will be, that the study of normal and abnormal facts, intimately
associated together, will lend to each other a mutual and powerful support.

A vast collection of most valuable materials on this subject
may be found scattered through various publications on natural and medical
science; but before the younger St. Hilaire (who has largely profited by his
father's labours) undertook the task of collecting them, there existed no
modern work which professed to give a complete and separate account of the
various anomalies of organization, such as might serve as a textbook, and for
the purposes of reference, in which all the varieties of monstrosity which have
been met with should be recorded, as well as the opinions of different writers
on their nature and causes.

Our author thinks that the consideration of the various
kinds of monstrosity, with the laws and causes of their formation, should form
a distinct branch of science, and should be treated of separately from
pathological or general anatomy and physiology, embryology, or zoology; with
all of which they have a very close connexion, and together with some of which
they have mostly been described. To this particular subject which M. Isidore
St. Hilaire has thus isolated from the sciences by which it is surrounded, he
has proposed that the name of Teratology* should be given, which he considers
preferable to the old denomination of monstrosities, the term which was
previously given to all kinds of congenital malformation. Our author's views as
to the separate place which Teratology should hold in science are supported by
Meckel, who supposes that the various species of monstrous formation compose a
series rising by regular gradations, from the natural shape to the most
unnatural deformity: and that the intermediate steps are not constituted by
single or individual cases, but that every variety of monstrous formation is
accurately repeated in other individuals; so that, in fact, a separate and independent
kingdom of monsters might be established.

Monstrosities have attracted the attention of philosophers
as well as the vulgar in all ages. Among the ancients, Hippocrates, Aristotle,
Pliny, Galen, and even Empedocles and Democritus noticed their occurrence and
investigated their causes; and these early writers had almost as accurate
notions of the nature, and gave as faithful descriptions of monstrous
formations, as any of the authors on this subject before the commencement of
the eighteenth century. Indeed, the history of monsters, till very lately, was
composed of a collection of marvellous tales, inaccurate descriptions, and
absurd and superstitious prejudices. This long period of ignorance, with
respect to their true nature, may be called the fabulous period in the history
of the science, and cannot be said to have terminated before the time of
Ambrose Paré. A few authentic and interesting cases, it is true, had been
already recorded; but these were only rare exceptions, which attracted little attention,
except when some author tried to give a new and ridiculous explanation of them,
derived from the fanciful ideas which were then exclusively prevalent. In fact,
monsters were regarded by the writers of the seventeenth century as by those of
preceding ages, as prodigies and sports of nature, arising from supernatural or
unnatural causes.

After the fabulous, succeeded what St. Hilaire has called
the positive period in the history of anomalies; it comprises about the first
half of the eighteenth century. Evident progress now commenced, and facts were
correctly observed, though still often explained on false principles. The most
celebrated authors of this age on teratology were found among the members of
the French Academy.
Méry, Duverney, Winslow, Lémery, and Littre may be particularly mentioned. In
the works of these great men, we not only find numerous facts accurately
observed and described, but many judicious remarks and violent attacks against
ancient prejudices. In place of those explanations of the phenomena of
monstrosity, which were admitted by the superstition of the preceding period,
they endeavoured to substitute scientific and reasonable theories. The causes
of monstrosity particularly excited attention; and though many errors were
fallen into, for want of the support of a sufficient number of facts, yet it
was discovered that one of the greatest difficulties was involved in the
question, whether monsters were formed so originally, or whether the
monstrosity was accidentally acquired. A very long and able controversy was
carried on concerning this point between Lémery and Winslow, the former of whom
contended that monstrosities were formed or arose during the growth of the
embryo; and modern discoveries in embryology have shown that he was correct,
though his rival, who held that the germs were originally monstrous, was
considered to have triumphed at the time.

The labours of these celebrated academicians conducted the
science to its last epoch, which may be denominated the scientific, and which
extends from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present time. It may
be divided into many periods; and it will be seen that a vast difference exists
between the state of teratology at its commencement and end, owing to the rapid
progress which science has made. Haller may be said to have commenced this era,
though Morgagni had previously corrected several erroneous opinions respecting
the nature and causes of monstrous formations. Haller, in his treatise De monstris, collected all the facts relating
to this subject which were recorded by his contemporaries and predecessors,
submitted them to a judicious analysis, and deduced from them several
conclusions eminently calculated to promote the advancement of this study.
Haller, however, fell into some fundamental errors, the most important of which
was that respecting the mode of the development of the embryo. He supposed (and
his theory prevailed till very lately, and is now partly entertained by some
physiologists,) that the development of the organs of the foetus was
centrifugal, or that the heart, brain, spinal cord, &c. were formed before
the vessels and nerves which were gradually developed from them. This theory,
as we shall presently show, is contrary to those laws of formation by which the
greater number of anomalies are explained by our author and other
teratologists.

The rapid advances which have led to the present state of
this department of science are owing to the indefatigable researches of modern
anatomists. The study of general and comparative anatomy led the way to the
true method of investigation, viz. that of comparing adult man to the embryo,
and various animals to man, both in the adult and foetal states. This
comparison has given rise to two new methods of investigation, which are now
almost universally recognized in the science of anatomy. One discloses the true
laws of organic formations; the other embraces the general facts of the
structure of animal bodies, considered in all ages and all species. Both of
these methods reveal to us important knowledge concerning the composition of
organs: the one plan assists us in learning the mode of their formation; and
the other decomposes them by a learned analysis, and shows us the elements,
everywhere identical, disposed according to invariable rules. Embryology is
thus placed upon its true basis, and philosophical anatomy created. Among those
naturalists to whom we are indebted for these researches, we may particularly
enumerate Geoffroy St. Hilaire (the father of our author) and M. Serres in France,
and Frederic Meckel and Tiedemann in Germany.

The various species of monstrous formations have been
referred to three classes, viz.

1. Anomalies which arise from arrest of formation or
development, in which various parts are found either imperfectly formed or
altogether deficient.

2. Anomalies from excess of formation or development, in
which some organs exceed their natural limits either in size or number.

3. Anomalies which result neither from arrest nor excess of
formation and development, but in which the formative process seems to have
been simply perverted, thus producing various modifications in the direction
and situation of organs. In this class M. Isidore St. Hilaire includes the
entire group of compound monstrosities, which result from the junction or
fusion of two or more separate individuals. These have generally been referred
to one of the previous classes.

The explanation of these different varieties of
organization, or the laws of anomalies, must be derived from the general laws
or principles of organization, which the study of philosophical anatomy and
embryology have revealed; and, before proceeding to the consideration of the
different varieties of monsters, we shall briefly mention the most interesting
of these laws, and explain the manner in which they elucidate the different
classes of monstrosities.

1. The first and most important is the law of unity of
organic composition.

One great principle reigns over the whole of zoological
science, that there is a unity of plan in the animal kingdom. Philosophical
anatomy has shown us that the organs of animals are composed of materials which
are always essentially the same, and which are combined according to definite
rules; and that curious and unexpected analogies often exist between beings
placed at the opposite extremities of the scale. If we admit the existence of a
distinct and peculiar plan of organization for each species, or even in
different families, we only obtain partial views, and the science will be
reduced to the sterile observation of facts, without reciprocal connexion,
rational analogies, or possible consequences. If, on the contrary, we elevate
our ideas to the conception of a unity of plan pervading the whole animal
kingdom, we shall only see in the multitude of beings which compose the animal
series, the innumerable parts of one immense whole, the infinite varieties of
one and the same type.

If we apply to the solution of the difficulties which this
subject presents, the theory of inequalities of formation and development, we
shall find it equally applicable to zoology as to teratology; and the
fundamental truth will be apparent, that one or more metamorphoses, to a
greater or less extent, sometimes consisting merely in a simple change in the
mode of evolution of an organ, will explain all those varieties of form and
structure which at the first aspect seem to arise from essential differences in
the formative process.

The series of species in the animal kingdom seems to be
parallel with the series or stages of formation or development in any
individual being, or, in fact, with the series of ages in that being; and the
facts of one are reciprocally connected with and explain those of the other.
The connexion between teratology and zoology is now seen. The theory of
inequality of formation and development relates both to the series of ages in
the embryo and the series of zoological species, as well as to the series of
monstrosities: it shows the parallel relation between the first and second as
well as between the first and third; and by the same laws the series of
zoological species and monstrous cases are necessarily analogous and parallel
to each other. Thus, in an abstract point of view, all the differences between
beings either normal or abnormal may be embraced in the same considerations and
referred to the same formulae: as, for instance,—the inferior beings are, as it
were, the permanent embryos of animals higher in the scale; and, reciprocally,
the superior beings, before they arrived at the definite forms which
characterize them, have transitorily offered those of the lower animals. This
must not be taken, however, quite literally; for the resemblance or analogy is
only seen between individual organs, not entire beings.

By this law of unity of type in the formation of animals
(which has been so fully exposed in the works of the elder St. Hilaire, Meckel,
and Serres,) may be explained the resemblances which have so often been
observed between the anomalous states of one species and the natural form of
another. Every animal in whom there has been arrest of development should
realize in some of its organs the conditions met with among the inferior
classes. Excess of development, on the contrary, should cause a resemblance
between the animal which is the subject of it and some of the beings higher in
the scale. Many examples of monstrosity have been brought forward in support of
this theory, and we may briefly state a few of them. The most numerous cases
are those in which the higher animals by arrest of development present the
characters which are natural to some inferior species. Thus man, when affected
with monstrosity, often has a marked resemblance in some characters with
different mammalia, as by the persistence of the tail,[i]
and by many anomalies in form either of the limbs, body, or head. Thus, by the
existence of a cloaca, labial fissure, duplicity of the uterus, smallness of
the brain, and absence or imperfect state of the convolutions, the malformed
human foetus presents characters which are all found existing naturally in
various species of rodentia, as the beaver, &c.

In some monsters there has been found bifurcation of the
glans penis or clitoris, and two vaginae, a disposition of parts existing
normally among marsupial animals. By imperforation of the vulva, and a separate
termination by distinct orifices, of the sexual and urinary organs, with
imperfect development of the eyes, the genus called aspalasomus and other monsters realize in man those organic
conditions, which in the normal state distinguish the mole and some other insectivora from all other mammalia. In
the genus of monsters, phocomeles,
the limbs are shortened, the hands and feet appearing to exist alone, and to be
inserted immediately on the trunk, as in the seals and the herbivorous cetacea.
In the rare monster, ectromeles, the
limbs are nearly or altogether deficient, as in the ordinary cetacea.[ii]

We may also often observe some of the conditions of animals
still lower in the scale, realized in human monsters; thus, there may be a
rudimentary state of the palatine arch, as in fishes; imperfect development of
the diaphragm, as in all oviparous animals; a communication between the
different cavities of the heart, as in reptiles; an absence of the brain and
spinal marrow; and a nervous system composed only of ganglions and nervous
filaments, as in the articulated animals.[iii]

Although the cases are much more rare in which the inferior
animals resemble the higher, from excess of development,[iv] yet
many instances of this kind have been met with. St. Hilaire has seen several
individuals among the carnivora in which the tail has disappeared, and the
spinal marrow has ascended in the vertebral canal, as it does in man and the
most highly-organized quadrumana. This anomaly also realizes the conditions met
with in some animals much lower in the series, as the anourous batrachians or
frogs, where there is a continuance or excess of the process of development in
the change from the tadpole to the perfect animal.

The possibility of referring the various species of monsters
to a common type is a necessary and easy deduction,—in fact, an indispensable
conclusion to be drawn from the theory of the unity of organic composition.
When we admit that the entire classes of the animal kingdom are established
upon one and the same plan, it becomes absurd to allow the existence of many
types in one family. From the natural relation which exists also between the
different degrees of monstrosity and the links in the animal chain results a
complete demonstration that monstrosity is not a blind disorder springing from
freaks of nature, but a particular class governed by constant and precise
rules, and capable of being systematically divided into definite tribes and
genera. The elder St. Hilaire, however, is disposed to consider each individual
monster as constituting in itself a distinct species; and he does not agree
with Meckel, that every variety of monstrous formation is accurately repeated
in other individuals.

2. The second law which we shall mention as being closely connected
with teratology is one of the fundamental principles of embryology: the basis,
in fact, upon which that science rests, viz., that no organs originally
preexist in the ovum, but are all formed at various periods of its growth.
Necessarily very minute and simple at the time of their early origin, the
different organs afterwards pass through a series of changes in the process of
development. These changes are far from being equal either in number or
importance, whether we compare together the same organ in different beings, or
different organs in the same being; so that, when arrived at their definitive
or permanent state, some have passed through a greater number of phases, and
have departed much more from their primitive conditions than others. Such is
the normal but not the invariable mode of development: an organ may stop
beneath its ordinary degree of perfection, or even be entirely abortive; it
may, on the contrary, exceed the natural term of its evolution, and thus will
arise the two groups of anomalies, opposite in their conditions of existence,
and also in their causes, to which so many of the species of monsters have been
referred, viz. arrest and excess of development.

The admission of the law of non-preexistence of organs in
the germ is fatal to the doctrine of original monstrosity existing before
fecundation: a doctrine conceived by Licetus and the older writers on this
subject, but which owed its celebrity to its adoption by Winslow and Haller. It
would now have been almost forgotten had not Meckel lately attempted to revive
it for the purpose of explaining the occurrence of certain monstrosities, the
origin of which cannot be understood in the present state of teratology, such
as the retroversion of the abdominal limbs and some other peculiarities of
organization, which are constantly associated with the junction of the legs in
the monsters named symeles. M. St.
Hilaire says that the only argument brought forward by Meckel in support of his
hypothesis is the impossibility of finding a satisfactory explanation of these
anomalies by the theory of accidental production of monstrosities: this is true
in the present state of science; but there is no reason why the obscurity of
this case should not one day be cleared up, like many other facts in teratology,
which were formerly thought inexplicable, and cited as certain proofs of the
original production of monstrosities, but which the ulterior progress of
science has discovered to be in support of the inverse theory.

According to the law which admits the formation and not the
evolution of organs, monsters from arrest of development may be considered in
some respects as permanent embryos: they show us at the termination of
intra-uterine life some of their organs in the simple state in which they were first
formed; as if nature had stopped in her course for the purpose of allowing us
the opportunity of observing her processes.

3. A third law is that of eccentric development. We have already remarked that Haller (and he
was followed by all the anatomists of the eighteenth century) considered that
the heart was formed before any other organ, and was itself the origin of all
the others; that it furnished the principal vascular trunks, which afterwards
subdivided into branches more and more minute. In the same manner the nervous
trunks were considered to derive their origin from the cerebro-spinal axis,
which was said to be first developed, and the larger nerves were afterwards
thought to ramify into the minute branches; in other words, all the vessels and
nerves, subdividing more and more, proceeded from the central parts of the
nervous and vascular systems towards the organs placed on the surface of the
body, to which they gave nourishment and life. This theory is denominated that
of centrifugal development, and has
still many supporters.

The inverse doctrine, that of eccentric or centripetal
development, was proposed by M. Serres, and is warmly supported by Geofiroy
St. Hilaire and his son: all the laws of teratology proposed by the father and
followed by his son in the present work are founded upon it, and by this theory
a great number of anomalies are explained. These anatomists say that the
vessels and nerves are formed before the heart and nervous centres; they first
originate in the superficial organs on the surface of the body, and are
gradually developed towards the centre; in support of this opinion it is said
that the heart, brain, and spinal cord have all of them been found wanting in
different monsters, while the vessels and nerves have never been seen wholly
deficient. The large trunks are also found more frequently irregular in their
course and distribution than the superficial branches of an artery or nerve,
and the contrary should be the case if the development was centrifugal, as it
has been observed that those organs which are latest formed are the least
constant.

According to the observations of M. Serres, the development
of the body commences on the surface of the two lateral halves, each central
and single organ being originally double, its right and left portions are at
first distinct and separate, and become afterwards united. If by any causes, as
arrest of development, the union of these two half-organs is prevented from
taking place, if this primitive state of formation becomes permanent, two
lateral organs are formed, which may be either entirely distinct or only
partially separated, according to the period of formation at which the arrest
of development took place. The median labial fissure (often confounded with the
lateral fissure or true hare-lip) has been thus explained, as well as fissure
of the palate, scrotum, urethra, and spinal fissure or spina bifida, &c. M.
Serres also states that the hollow organs situated in the median line are
composed originally of two halves; as well as the solid organs; and his
observations have been, to a certain extent, confirmed by Dr. Allen Thomson,
and others. Thus, according to our author, there are at one period two hearts
(this organ is placed in the first instance in the median line), two aortae,
two vaginae, uteri, bladders, &c. These organs are considered to pass
through three successive stages in the process of development: in the first
they are completely double, and the two portions quite separate; in the next
stage they approach and unite in the median line, the two inner walls being
applied against each other, and at the third period they become definitely
fused, the inner walls being removed, and all traces of separation lost. If by
arrest of development the second stage of formation becomes permanent, the
inner walls of the primitive organs which unite together and form naturally a
temporary septum are not removed, and the organ is intersected by a
longitudinal partition. Such an anomaly is sometimes met with in the human
subject, affecting the vagina and uterus, and realizing the natural conditions
of the sexual organs in some marsupial animals.

Another fact which is dependent upon the law of centripetal
development is the greater constancy of form in those organs which are of early
formation than in those later developed. When any cause comes into action at
any period of uterine life, by which the process of growth may be disturbed,
those organs which are already nearly or fully evolved will necessarily be
little or not at all altered; but a very marked change, on the contrary, may be
effected in those parts which are very imperfectly developed, or whose
formation has not even commenced. In the latter case complete atrophy may be
effected.

If we add, that in most of the systems of organs the
different parts are subordinate in their formation one to another, the second
being produced by the first, the third by the second, and so on, we shall see
that the suppression of any one of them, without having any influence on those
which preceded it, will necessarily cause the complete absence of all those
which ought to have followed it in the order of development. The results of
observation perfectly confirm these remarks; it has been found that the
umbilicus and small intestines are the parts most constant in monsters, and
also the organs first formed in the embryo; the spinal cord also is less often
wanting than the brain which it precedes, the aorta than the heart, &c. The
superficial and lateral parts of the body are also much more constant than the
central or medial organs, they often exist when the latter are wanting, and
they frequently present a regular conformation when the latter are seriously
modified or very incomplete. Many cases may be met with where the different
parts or organs have been reduced to their external covering or integument;
thus in the monsters named cyclocephali
and otocephali, in which the two eyes
or ears are in contact, or united in one, the nose is entirely rudimentary, the
bones, &c. being deficient, and only the skin remaining, which is sometimes
prolonged in the form of a snout or trunk: sometimes one of the abdominal limbs
has been found in this rudimentary state, and in some very imperfect monsters
the whole being seems to be reduced to the tegumentary covering, inclosing a
few unconnected parts, as bones, vessels, &c.

[i]In the
early stages of formation of the human fetus, there naturally exists a
prolongation of the coccyx, which is removed by the progress of development.

[ii] It is
proper to observe, however, that some of these cases were probably instances of
‘spontaneous amputation,’ and cannot,
therefore, be properly called monsters at all. Rev.

[iii] In the
last of these cases, no real analogy can bo said to exist.—Rev.

[iv]These anomalies appear to be more rare, perhaps, than
they really are, on account of the much greater number of monstrosities that
arc observed and examined in man than among animals.

Text from Directions
for making anatomical preparations: formed on the basis of
Pole, Marjolin and Breschet, and including the new method of Mr. Swan
(1831) by Usher Pole.

Preface

That a minute knowledge of anatomy is essential to success
in the practice of physic and surgery, is an opinion so generally prevalent,
that the assertion of it at the present day wears the air of a truism. Every
student reads the remark in his books, hears it from his lecturer, sees its
force in the clinical rounds of his instructor, and feels it when he commences
practice. And if the young practitioner feels the want of anatomical knowledge
when he has recently left the dissecting table and the halls of demonstration,
how much more sensible must he be of it, after years have elapsed, without
affording him an opportunity to refresh his memory by lectures or dissections.
To obviate this inconvenience, various modes have been employed for preserving
the different organs and textures, in a humid or dry state, to which the
practitioner may refer as a substitute for recent dissection and demonstration;
with this aim in view, the art of making anatomical preparations has been
cultivated with great success and advantage.

The art is of modern invention. Injecting and preparing of
the blood vessels certainly could not have been known prior to the discovery of
the circulation of the blood, nor have we any description of arterial
preparations until the time of Ruysch, a professor of anatomy who died in 1731.
His first anatomical museum was sold to Peter the Great, in 1717, and many
specimens belonging to it, as well as a great number made subsequently, are
still in a good state of preservation. His manner of preparing wet
specimens,—of injecting the blood vessels, and of preserving the flexibility of
dried preparations, although he professed to have disclosed it, is supposed to
have perished with him, since no one has yet succeeded in imitations that can
be compared with those made by himself.

Still however the common process for making and preserving
injected preparations bears the name of Ruysch, and to this process many
additions and improvements have been made by Dumeril, Breschet, Hunter, Pole,
Marjolin, Charles Bell, Cloquet, Swan and some others, besides several valuable
treatises on the art of injecting the lymphatics, and numerous facts and
observations, are contained in periodical publications. The substance of the
following sheets, is principally drawn from the above writers, but chiefly from
Pole, to which are added, such facts as I could glean from some of the best
practical anatomists of this country, and such observations as I have been able
to collect during a year passed in the medical schools of Europe, and several
years devoted to practical anatomy in this country.

That a work like the present is wanted, appears evident from
the fact, that several teachers of anatomy have contemplated publishing an
edition of Pole, notwithstanding its numerous imperfections. I should however
not have commenced the present work, had that of Pole been in circulation in
this country. The few copies to be found are imported, and I have several times
been at pains to order copies for my friends from London.

Such a work will, I am confident, be acceptable to students
from the country, as by following its directions, they will be able to preserve
the dissections made at medical schools, as memorials of their industry, and
for reference in their future practice. Even in cities, where subjects are easily
obtained and dissected, and where public demonstrations are frequent, a student
feels reluctant to destroy a fine piece of dissection that has cost him long
protracted labour and pains to finish, although he may expect to derive but
little advantage from its preservation; but in the country, where such
specimens are the best, if not the only means he can enjoy for refreshing his
memory, they possess a real and practical value; for, with the exception of
Massachusetts, whose legislature has nobly raised its voice in favour of
practical anatomy, prejudice and legal impediments it is to be feared will long
exist against its prosecution throughout the union, and especially in our
country towns.

INTRODUCTION.

SEASON FOR DISSECTING AND
FOR MAKING DRY PREPARATIONS.

The extremes of heat and cold are unfavourable for
dissections and making preparations, heat being the season for insects and
rapid putrefaction, and* cold congeals the subject, the subsequent thawing of
which is attended with loss of time, hastens decomposition, and always impairs
the beauty of the preparations. But the objections to midwinter are removed
where the accommodations are such as to moderate the intensity of cold. The
late autumnal and early spring months are, however, decidedly preferable for
long continued dissections; and it is well known to those who are conversant
with the business, that for preserving subjects from decomposition, spring at
the same temperature, is more favorable than autumn. These remarks however,
refer to preparations requiring long and patient dissection; for other kinds,
as macerated and corroded, the summer season may be even preferable.

DISEASES OCCASIONED BY DISSECTIONS.

Besides the diseases that may proceed from contagious
affections of dead bodies and which every anatomist will know how to avoid,
there are two pertaining to a dissecting room that require some notice. One of
them is derangement of the stomach, sometimes attended with fever, and which is
probably occasioned by putrid inhalations, perhaps by errors in diet and long
exposure to cold, and is more common to ardent beginners; the other is
extensive and severe inflammation from slight wounds of the fingers, and
absorption of poison from the subject. B

The former affection may be prevented, first, by proper
attention to diet, never visiting nor remaining in the dissecting room with an
empty stomach ; by nutritious well seasoned food and considerable exercise of
the body in the open air, and by obviating a costive habit. Secondly, by
attention to the air of the room both as respects temperature and cleanliness.
The large cavities of a subject when cleared of their viscera may be sponged
with clean water and sprinkled with chlorate of lime and the room freely
ventilated.—When the emanations are very putrid and offensive, they may be
entirely removed by a fumigating mixture like the following:

.Black oxide of manganese and common salt pulverised, equal
parts, by weight, to which add sulphuric acid, diluted with three parts of
water in a leaden or earthen vessel. Close the dissecting room, leaving the
mixture in the centre of it in the evening, and by morning, the putrid smell
will be entirely removed.

Attention should also be paid to cleanliness of person. An
apron with sleeves to it, made of shalloon, or brown linen, may be worn, and
when this is wanting, a suitable coat to put on and off on entering and leaving
the room may be substituted.

When the symptoms of gastric disturbance which I have
mentioned appear, the dissection should be suspended, for a day or two, and an
active cathartic administered.

The other affection arising from wounds of the fingers is of
a more serious character. Chambar, Percy, Duncan, and Shaw, have each written
treatises of some length on such wounds, from which I shall draw such facts as
are most material to be known. The effects of such wounds, Mr. Duncan and Mr.
Shaw, think, may be classed under two heads, forming cases which differ
essentially from each other. The one is attended with immediate danger, and is
generally the consequence of examining a body a few hours after death ; and
proceeds with more certainty, from dissection of the bodies of persons who have
died with inflammation of some of the serous membranes. The other cases are
more frequent, and less dangerous, and they occur more in common dissections,
and particularly, in preparing bones or ligaments after long maceration. The
symptoms attending this last kind of wound are the following :—the finger being
scratched or pricked in the morning; there is not much pain at the time, but it
gradually increases towards evening; a little uneasiness is felt in the axilla,
and next morning red lines can be perceived running up the arm. The finger is
now excessively painful; there are often slight rigors, and general uneasiness
; the countenance is anxious, tongue sometimes furred, and head-ache; but there
is not much fever. The finger then becomes rapidly swollen and livid, so as to
call for immediate attention, and the general system still more and more
affected.

In respect to the first, or malignant kind, which is more
likely to occur from examining a body that has died from peritonitis, in the
form of hernia and puerperal fever; or from pleurisy, there will, in five or
six hours after receiving a scratch or puncture be a small pimple, or a blush
of red. If the case proceeds in the usual manner, there will probably be a
darting pain up the arm, which seems to fix more particularly in the shoulder
or side of the chest. Within fourteen hours, the patient is very ill; he
suffers a great deal of pain, and is anxious and alarmed. Red lines may
generally be perceived running from the hand towards the axilla, but it
sometimes happens that there are no marks on the arm, nor even on the finger.
Indeed, the affection of the finger is occasionally so slight, "that it is
neglected, and the patient refers all his suffering to the shoulder and chest.
Vessications often appear, and the case may end in desquamation of the cuticle,
or in suppuration with extensive sloughing, and a discharge of fetid matter,
and in many instances, it proves fatal."

The local treatment of both kinds of the above mentioned
wounds, should be the same, at the moment they are inflicted. It consists in
applying to the wound a drop of strong mineral acid or of caustic ;—the French
prefer liquid muriate of antimony. But after this has been neglected, and
absorption has taken place, indicated by pain, &c. such applications will
be of no avail, and may aggravate inflammation. The best applications will then
be of the soothing kind. Mr. Shaw recommends lint soaked in equal parts of
Goulard's extract and laudanum, applied round the finger and along the arm.
Emolient cataplasms are also recommended, but their weight gives pain and
uneasiness. The French recommend leeches to the part.

According to the same authors, the general treatment should
be active aperients, such as rhubarb and jalap, with a little calomel, and to
keep the patient at first almost in a state of intoxication, by laudanum and
porter. Bleeding, although the pulse be much accelerated, he condemns.

Should any abrasion or sore previously exist on the fingers
of the dissector, the utmost care should be taken to shield it from the contact
of the dead body, by proper dressing and a slip of bladder bound over it.

CHOICE OF SUBJECTS.

This must, of course, vary according to the kind of
preparation intended to be made. For a perfect skeleton, the subject should be
near, or a little passed, middle age, for if younger, the bones are not so
fully developed, and in old age they contain oil, which is constantly appearing
upon their surface. For exhibiting osteogeny, choose the bones of a foetus; and
for showing the vascularity of bones with minute injection, the bones of a
young child are preferable ;—To make a preparation of the bones of the head
separately, choose the bones of a young subject, before the age of puberty, and
for the ossiculae of the ear, a child from birth to one or two years. The
tympanum should here be preserved on one side, and partially removed on the other,
taking care to preserve its centre, where the maleus is attached. For
exhibiting the labyrinth by filing into the petrous portion, the temporal bone
of an adult will be best. For exhibiting the deciduous and permanent teeth,
choose the head of a child from five to eight years old, and file away the
alveolar covering of the front teeth.

To dissect and study the muscles, choose a robust, full
grown subject that has died suddenly, and a male in preference to a female. For
making dry preparations of the muscles, take a subject of a strong muscular
frame, whose death was occasioned by a short, but not putrid disease. Great
corpulency, as well as great leanness, and dropsical subjects, are for obvious
reasons unsuitable.

For dissecting and studying the arteries and veins, choose
an adult that is neither very plethoric nor very lean. For making a dry
preparation of the blood-vessels of an entire body, an emaciated subject, from
two to fourteen years is preferable, as being more easily dissected and dried,
and more conveniently handled, and less likely to become greasy after it is
varnished :—For a head or extremities, an adult not much beyond middle age, as
after this period there will be a constant issuing of fat upon the surface,
that will mar the beauty of the preparation; but as the veins are more
developed in advanced age, such subjects are best for shewing them upon the
head. For minute injection, a full grown foetus is best, and may at the same
time serve for exhibiting the foetal circulation, and for making many handsome
preparations, to be hereafter described.

For a wet or dry preparation of the cerebral nerves, choose
an adult emaciated subject, of almost any age;— but for the whole nervous
system, a small emaciated subject, as it can be more conveniently preserved in
spirit.

For the lymphatics choose a full grown dropsical subject.

SURGICAL OPERATIONS.

Whatever be the kind of subject that has fallen into the
hands of the student, and whatever may be his purpose as to its final
destination, he should first perform such little operations upon it, as can be
done without injuring it for injecting, and which he may be desirous of
performing with dexterity upon the living body; such as introducing the
catheter and probing ;—passing a fine wire into the puncta lachrymalia, and
introducing a probe from the lachrymal sack through the nasal duct;—pinching up
the tunica conjunctiva with a pair of small forceps and clipping it with
scissors, as is often required for severe opthalmia. After the subject is
injected, he may take up the various arteries, as the carotid, subclavian,
axillary, external iliac, and those of the extremities. He may also operate for
hare-lip, perform bronchotomy, &c.

ORDER OF EXAMINATION OF THE LARGE CAVITIES.

The tendency of the brain and other viscera of the large
cavities to rapid putrefaction, requires their early removal. The brain
mollifies so soon, that if the student intends examining it minutely, or to
make a wet preparation of it, no time is to be lost by delaying the undertaking.

The next organs to be examined and removed, are, the
abdominal viscera, as their presence hastens decomposition. For this purpose
make a crucial incision from the sternum to the pubis, and cross it with
another near the umbilicus. In this way the viscera are more easily examined
and removed, but the abdominal muscles are in some measure destroyed for
dissection. Such however is the intricacy of this piece of dissection, that the
student will hardly undertake it at first; and the parts most interesting to the
surgical pupil, as the abdominal ring and surrounding ligaments, are uninjured
by it. The viscera are to be examined in their natural situation, and then
after passing a ligature round the O3sophagus below the diaphragm, and round
the rectum, they are to be removed, by dividing the suspensory ligament of the
liver, turning it down from the diaphragm, dividing the oesophagus above the
ligature, and raising the stomach, spleen and pancreas, leaving the branches of
the coeliac and mesenteric arteries as long as practicable. The viscera may be
subsequently examined, and made into separate preparations, as hereafter
directed.

The chest, it is presumed, has already been opened for the
purpose of injecting the subject, if not, proceed as directed for injecting the
arteries, and remove such organs as are intended not to be preserved in
connexion with the walls of the thorax.

The contents of the pelvis are to be removed, by dissecting
the kidneys and passing them downward, or, by dividing the ureters, and dissecting
round the several organs down to the sphincter ani. But if it is intended to
preserve these organs in connexion with the pelvis ; the rectum is to be
cleared and stuffed with curled hair, or oiled wool.

The subject may now be dissected entire, or it may be
divided among a class of four or five persons.

MUSCULAR DISSECTIONS.

Before he commences dissections, the student is presumed to
be well acquainted with the skeleton. He is to begin his work by making an
incision through the integuments, down to the muscles of each limb, commencing
it near the trunk and extending it along in the direction of the large muscles.
The limb or part dissected should be so placed as to keep the fibres of the
muscles in a state of gentle extension. The integuments are to be raised from
the muscles, by drawing them aside, and laying the edge of the knife obliquely
upon and in direction of the fibres, in order that all cellular substance may
be removed without dividing them. The knife may be held in the fingers like a
pen, and moved by them, rather than with the wrist or arm. After removing the
integuments over muscles, all the cellular substance between them is to be
dissected out, taking care not to divide the large nerves or blood-vessels, or
such of their branches as are interesting in surgery. When the superficial
layer of muscles is fairly cleared of adipose substance, they may be raised or
turned aside with hooks, or divided in the middle and turned back, for the
purpose of exposing the deep-seated ones for dissection. The integuments ,are
to be raised from the muscles no farther at a time than is necessary for the
present dissection, and should afterwards be replaced upon the part, to keep it
from drying and to protect it from dust; and in warm weather the whole should be
covered during the interim of dissection with a wet cloth, to keep it cool by
evaporation.

It should be the object of the student to examine the
muscles separately and in classes, according to their respective offices; to
study their situation and direction with respect to the arteries and nerves,
and other parts that are concerned in surgery. If not intended to be preserved,
the muscles may after full dissection be removed, and the ligaments and
structure of the joints examined, before the bones are immersed for maceration.

The student will hardly find it advantageous to make dry
preparations of the muscles alone. They require as much attention, and are
attended with as great expense, as when prepared with the blood-vessels, and
unless he adopts the method of Mr. Swan hereafter described they will change in
colour and size so much by drying, as to represent a recent dissection less
satisfactorily than good plates.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF COLD AND
WARM INJECTION.

The comparative value of the two kinds of injection depends
somewhat upon the kind of preparation intended to be made. For corroded
preparations the cold injection is entirely unsuitable. For wet preparations it
is immaterial which kind is used, excepting that the warm kind is attended with
loss of time and expense. For common dissections, the cold injection is in most
respects preferable, not only on account of the trouble and expense saved in
heating the subject, and its not heating and crisping the aorta to the risk of
its strength, but also for its withstanding the greatest heat of summer, when
the warm kind is apt to liquefy and ooze out from the orifices of divided
branches. There is, however, a greater smoothness of the vessels that have been
filled with the warm kind, which is pleasing to the eye of an anatomist. In
respect to fineness, they will, either of them, if properly conducted, answer
every purpose for surgical reference, though beyond this, I have found the cold
injection succeed better than the warm, especially for filling vessels of the
hollow organs, and of the membranes of the large cavities. Therefore as
respects utility and convenience I should, except for corroded preparations,
prefer the cold injection.

“The field of monster studies has grown significantly over
the past few years and this companion provides a comprehensive guide to the
study of monsters and the monstrous from historical, regional and thematic
perspectives. The collection reflects the truly multi-disciplinary nature of
monster studies, bringing in scholars from literature, art history, religious
studies, history, classics, and cultural and media studies. The companion will
offer scholars and graduate students the first comprehensive and authoritative
review of this emergent field.” (Publisher Blurb)

'This volume awakens
the monster as an academic topic. Combining John Block Friedman's historical-literary
approach with Jeffrey J. Cohen's theoretical concerns, Asa Simon Mittman and
Peter Dendle have marshaled chapters that comprise a seminal work for everyone
interested in the monstrous. Wide-ranging chapters work through various
historical and geographic views of monstrosity, from the African Mami Wata to
Pokemon. Theoretical chapters consider contemporary views of what a monster is
and why we care about them as we do. Taken together, the essays in The Ashgate
Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous reveal that monsters appear in
every culture and haunt each of us in different ways, or as Mittman says, the
monstrous calls into question our (their, anyone's) epistemological worldview,
highlights its fragmentary and inadequate nature, and thereby asks us … to
acknowledge the failures of our systems of categorization.' (David Sprunger, Concordia
College, Minnesota, USA)

'An impressively broad and thoughtful collection of the ways
in which many cultures, ancient and modern, have used monsters to think about
what it means to be human. Lavishly illustrated and ambitious in scope, this
book enlarges the reader's imagination.' (Professor Lorraine Daston, Director
of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science,
Germany)

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an early campaigner for the rights of women and was sympathetic to radical ideas current at the time of the American and French revolution. Her critique of male prerogative and power, ranging from male monarchs to husbands and fathers as domestic tyrants is elegantly argued. She provides a devastating account of a society dominated by men.

Today, tyrants are still ruling many countries such as Syria, and women's rights (if they exist at all) are everywhere under threat. Accordingly, Wollstonecraft's plea for the liberation of women remains a highly relevant project.

There is a strand in her thought (developed further in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818) that I am calling monstrous feminism. On this view, men comprise a system of teratology; they operate a monstrous economy in which their power circulates and supports their privileges.

Here are some quotations and comments which I have selected from her book most famous book A Vindicaton of the the Rights of Woman (1792)

In the first, she discusses the notion that the ideal expressed in art is not a reflection of an observed reality, but rather a selection of parts that compose the whole:

I do not forget the popular opinion, that the Grecian statues were
not modelled after nature. I mean, not according to the
proportions of a particular man; but that beautiful limbs and
features were selected from various bodies to form an harmonious
whole. This might, in some degree, be true. The fine ideal
picture of an exalted imagination might be superior to the
materials which the painter found in nature, and thus it might with
propriety be termed rather the model of mankind than of a man. It
was not, however, the mechanical selection of limbs and features,
but the ebullition of an heated fancy that burst forth; and the
fine senses and enlarged understanding of the artist selected the
solid matter, which he drew into this glowing focus.

It is the conditions of society that lead to deformity, and which corrupt an original source:I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole was
produced—a model of that grand simplicity, of those concurring
energies, which arrest our attention and command our reverence.
For only insipid lifeless beauty is produced by a servile copy of
even beautiful nature. Yet, independent of these observations, I
believe, that the human form must have been far more beautiful than
it is at present, because extreme indolence, barbarous ligatures,
and many causes, which forcibly act on it, in our luxurious state
of society, did not retard its expansion, or render it deformed.

---

Civilization is presented as a male mode that conceals the underlying monstrosity at its core: Besides, nothing can be so prejudicial to the morals of the
inhabitants of country towns, as the occasional residence of a set
of idle superficial young men, whose only occupation is gallantry,
and whose polished manners render vice more dangerous, by
concealing its deformity under gay ornamental drapery. An air of
fashion, which is but a badge of slavery, and proves that the soul
has not a strong individual character, awes simple country people
into an imitation of the vices, when they cannot catch the slippery
graces of politeness.

---

In traditional terms vice and corruption also correspond to a type of deformityGoing back to first principles, vice skulks, with all its native
deformity, from close investigation; but a set of shallow reasoners
are always exclaiming that these arguments prove too much, and that
a measure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus expediency is
continually contrasted with simple principles, till truth is lost
in a mist of words, virtue in forms, and knowledge rendered a
sounding nothing, by the specious prejudices that assume its name.

---

In this example, freak means 'whim' - with an underlying sense of frivolity:A man of rank or
fortune, sure of rising by interest, has nothing to do but to
pursue some extravagant freak; whilst the needy GENTLEMAN, who is
to rise, as the phrase turns, by his merit, becomes a servile
parasite or vile pander.

---

Thus,
as wars, agriculture, commerce, and literature, expands the mind,
despots are compelled, to make covert corruption hold fast the
power which was formerly snatched by open force.* And this baneful
lurking gangrene is most quickly spread by luxury and superstition,
the sure dregs of ambition. The indolent puppet of a court first
becomes a luxurious monster, or fastidious sensualist, and then
makes the contagion which his unnatural state spreads, the
instrument of tyranny.

It is the pestiferous purple which renders the progress of
civilization a curse, and warps the understanding, till men of
sensibility doubt whether the expansion of intellect produces a
greater portion of happiness or misery.
* Men of abilities scatter seeds that grow up, and have
a great influence on the forming opinion; and when once the public
opinion preponderates, through the exertion of reason, the
overthrow of arbitrary power is not very distant.

This argument branches into various ramifications. Birth, riches,
and every intrinsic advantage that exalt a man above his fellows,
without any mental exertion, sink him in reality below them. In
proportion to his weakness, he is played upon by designing men,
till the bloated monster has lost all traces of humanity. And that
tribes of men, like flocks of sheep, should quietly follow such a
leader, is a solecism that only a desire of present enjoyment and
narrowness of understanding can solve. Educated in slavish
dependence, and enervated by luxury and sloth, where shall we find
men who will stand forth to assert the rights of man; or claim the
privilege of moral beings, who should have but one road to
excellence? Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will
be long in freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the
progress of the human mind, is not yet abolished.

Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that
tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously
assert, that woman ought to be subjected because she has always
been so
---

As to the argument respecting the subjection in which the sex has
ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have always been
enthralled by the few; and, monsters who have scarcely shown any
discernment of human excellence, have tyrannized over thousands of
their fellow creatures. Why have men of superior endowments
submitted to such degradation? For, is it not universally
acknowledged that kings, viewed collectively, have ever been
inferior, in abilities and virtue, to the same number of men taken
from the common mass of mankind—yet, have they not, and are they
not still treated with a degree of reverence, that is an insult to
reason?

---

Such a woman is not a more irrational monster than some of the
Roman emperors, who were depraved by lawless power. Yet, since
kings have been more under the restraint of law, and the curb,
however weak, of honour, the records of history are not filled with
such unnatural instances of folly and cruelty, nor does the
despotism that kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over
Europe with that destructive blast which desolates Turkey, and
renders the men, as well as the soil unfruitful.

Women are every where in this deplorable state; for, in order to
preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth
is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial
character before their faculties have acquired any strength.
Taught from their infancy, that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind
shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only
seeks to adorn its prison.
---

In life, on the contrary, as we gradually discover the
imperfections of our nature, we discover virtues, and various
circumstances attach us to our fellow creatures, when we mix with
them, and view the same objects, that are never thought of in
acquiring a hasty unnatural knowledge of the world. We see a folly
swell into a vice, by almost imperceptible degrees, and pity while
we blame; but, if the hideous monster burst suddenly on our sight,
fear and disgust rendering us more severe than man ought to be,
might lead us with blind zeal to usurp the character of
omnipotence, and denounce damnation on our fellow mortals,
forgetting that we cannot read the heart, and that we have seeds of
the same vices lurking in our own.